Acts 7:34

I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:30-41 Men deceive themselves, if they think God cannot do what he sees to be good any where; he can bring his people into a wilderness, and there speak comfortably to them. He appeared to Moses in a flame of fire, yet the bush was not consumed; which represented the state of Israel in Egypt, where, though they were in the fire of affliction, yet they were not consumed. It may also be looked upon as a type of Christ's taking upon him the nature of man, and the union between the Divine and human nature. The death of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, cannot break the covenant relation between God and them. Our Saviour by this proves the future state, Mt 22:31. Abraham is dead, yet God is still his God, therefore Abraham is still alive. Now, this is that life and immortality which are brought to light by the gospel. Stephen here shows that Moses was an eminent type of Christ, as he was Israel's deliverer. God has compassion for the troubles of his church, and the groans of his persecuted people; and their deliverance takes rise from his pity. And that deliverance was typical of what Christ did, when, for us men, and for our salvation, he came down from heaven. This Jesus, whom they now refused, as their fathers did Moses, even this same has God advanced to be a Prince and Saviour. It does not at all take from the just honour of Moses to say, that he was but an instrument, and that he is infinitely outshone by Jesus. In asserting that Jesus should change the customs of the ceremonial law. Stephen was so far from blaspheming Moses, that really he honoured him, by showing how the prophecy of Moses was come to pass, which was so clear. God who gave them those customs by his servant Moses, might, no doubt, change the custom by his Son Jesus. But Israel thrust Moses from them, and would have returned to their bondage; so men in general will not obey Jesus, because they love this present evil world, and rejoice in their own works and devices.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I have seen ... - The repetition of this word is in accordance with the usage of the Hebrew writers when they wish to represent anything emphatically.

Their groaning - Under their oppressions.

Am come down - This is spoken in accordance with human conceptions. It means that God was about to deliver them.

I will send thee ... - This is a mere summary of what is expressed at much greater length in Exodus 3:7-10.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

30-34. an angel of the Lord—rather, "the Angel of the Covenant," who immediately calls Himself Jehovah (Compare Ac 7:38).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I have seen, I have seen; seeing I have seen, I have attentively seen and considered; it is doubled to show the certainty of it: if earthly parents, especially, look after their children when weak, much more our heavenly Father.

I have heard their groaning; though but sighs, and scarce framed into words.

Am come down; spoken after the manner of inch, according unto which God is said to come down unto any when he delivers them from their troubles, and to go from them when he leaves them in them: see Exodus 3:7,8, from which place, according to the reading of the Septuagint, these words are taken.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I have seen, I have see the affliction of my people, &c. The repetition of the phrase denotes the certainty of it, the exquisite and exact knowledge the Lord took of the affliction of his people, and how much his heart was affected with it:

which is in Egypt; from whence Moses had fled and had left them, he being now in the land of Midian, which was the place of his sojourning: and

I have heard their groaning; under their various oppressions and burdens, and by reason of the cruel usage of their taskmasters:

and am come down to deliver them; not by local motion, or change of place, God being omnipresent, who fills all places at all times; but by the effects of his grace and power.

And now come, I will send thee into Egypt; to Pharaoh, the king of it, Exodus 3:10 to require of him to let the children of Israel go, and to deliver them out of their bondage.

Geneva Study Bible

I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Acts 7:34. Ἰδὼν εἶδον] LXX. Exodus 3:7. Hence here an imitation of the Hebrew form of expression. Comp. Matthew 13:14; Hebrews 6:14. Similar emphatic combinations were, however, not alien to other Greek. See on 1 Corinthians 2:1; Lobeck, Paralip. p. 532. ἰδὼν εἶδον is found in Lucian, Dial. Mar. iv. 3.

κατέβην] namely, from heaven, where I am enthroned, Isaiah 66:1; Matthew 5:34. Comp. Genesis 11:7; Genesis 18:21; Psalm 144:5.

ἀποστείλω (see the critical remarks), adhortative subjunctive; see Elmsl. ad Eur. Bacch. 341, Med. 1242.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 7:34. ἰδὼν εἶδον: Hebraism, so LXX, Exodus 3:7, and so frequently, e.g., Psalm 40:1, cf. Matthew 13:14, Hebrews 6:14 (Genesis 22:17), the participle with the verb emphasising the assurance. But similar collocations are not wanting in classical Greek, see Page, in loco, and Wendt, who compares 1 Corinthians 2:1. The phrase ἰδὼν εἶδον occurs in Lucian, Dial. Mar., iv., 3 (Wetstein). “I have surely seen,” R.V., so in A. and R.V., Exodus 3:7, see Simcox, Language of N. T., p. 130, and Viteau, Le Grec du N. T., p. 217 (1896).—καὶ νῦν δεῦρο ἀποστελῶ, but cf. Exodus 3:10; ἀποστείλω; see critical notes. On the hortatory subj. in first person singular with δεῦρο or ἄφες prefixed, see Burton, N. T. Moods and Tenses, p. 74, cf. Matthew 7:4, Luke 6:42, but translated by the revisers, “I will send,” with an imperative force as of a divine command (see Rendall’s note, in loco). For classical instances cf. Wendt, in loco.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

34. I have seen, I have seen] The Greek is an attempt to imitate an emphatic Hebrew construction, and is literally “having seen, I have seen,” which in idiomatic English = “I have surely seen,” by which words the Hebrew is rendered (Exodus 3:7).

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 7:34. Τοῦ λαοῦ μου, of My people) They themselves were by this time, for the most part, ignorant that they were the people of GOD; and yet such they were.—τοῦ στεναγμοῦ, the groaning) The sighs, ἐκ στενοῦ, out of, or by reason of straits [whence comes στεναγμὸς], constitute a peculiar object of the Divine hearing.—κατέβην, I have come down) For previously He had not seemed to be near at hand.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 34. - I have surely seen (literally, seeing I have seen - the well-known Hebrew idiom for emphatic affirmation) for I have seen, I have seen, A.V.; have heard for I have heard, A.V.; and I am for and am, A.V., the change is in accordance with the A.V. of Exodus 3:7, 8. Acts 7:34

Vincent's Word Studies

I have seen, I have seen (ἰδὼν εἶδον)

Lit., having seen I saw. A Hebraism. See Exodus 3:7 (Sept.). Compare Judges 1:28 : utterly drive them out; lit., removing did not utterly remove. Judges 4:9 : going I will go; i.e., I will surely go. Genesis 37:8 : reigning shalt thou reign; i.e., shalt thou indeed reign. So Rev. here, "I have surely seen."